by Eric Vall
Chapter 1
“He is not crushing me with a fucking boulder.”
Dragir shot up from the stone table and glowered at the half-ogre, who was posted against the wall of the cave with his arms crossed.
“You said you wanted our help,” Haragh shot back with a broad grin.
“His help,” Dragir clarified as he pointed directly at me. “Not your help. Keep your backwoods ways to yourself, you filthy--”
“He won’t crush you with a boulder,” I cut in.
The last thing we needed was another argument between the two men, and I honestly didn’t want to hear more shit comments about my best friend and fellow Terra Mage at the moment.
Dragir furrowed his brow skeptically and turned to Shoshanne.
“You will ensure he does not crush me with a boulder while Mason’s back is turned?”
“It would go against all of my training to let someone crush you with a boulder,” the healer replied soberly, “but you should consider things like this before you start insulting perfectly respectable half-ogres. Haragh and I have known one another longer than I have known you. I happen to like him quite a lot.”
Shoshanne leveled the elf with a stern look while she arranged a few medical tools just in case they were needed.
Dragir gave a disgruntled nod and held his tongue before he slowly began to lay back on the table again.
I didn’t miss the wink Haragh sent him at the last second, though.
“Let me know if you need my assistance, doctor,” the half-ogre called to Shoshanne.
Dragir began mumbling nervously to himself in Elvish, and I couldn’t blame him.
If it was me about to have my skin peeled off, I’d be talking to myself, too.
The hefty iron chains I’d formed for the occasion clanged loudly as I secured the elf’s limbs and torso to the table, and I sent Dragir a nod once everything was in place.
We already knew the drug Shoshanne was poised to deliver would knock Dragir flat on his ass, but there was no knowing whether he’d stay stationary during the procedure.
Rhys’ son had turned into a raving lunatic when I’d only begun to slice the Master’s rune from his leg, and we didn’t want Dragir seizing and injuring himself during the process. Plus, I needed him as restrained as possible so the job would be quick.
After witnessing the effect of removing the Master’s rune, I didn’t doubt this rune would attack its carrier if need be, and if it did, it would be a race to save Dragir before his innards were completely destroyed. Since the rune was designed to painstakingly boil away the blood of anyone who crossed it, this was my primary concern for everyone involved.
Removing a possessive rune was one thing, but this time, we were all at risk.
Dragir’s rune was an offensive one with the degree marker for an outward attack seared into his flesh along with all the other lines. Shoshanne hoped the effect of the serum would take its toll on the rune itself and help to subdue the retaliation, but none of us had ever done anything like this before, so we couldn’t be sure it would work.
The chamber in the hidden fortress we’d chosen for the procedure was large enough for me to form a stone surgical table, and it was illuminated with spiraling copper wire dotted with orbs of golden light.
Dragir’s electricity provided plenty of light for the healer to work under, but she wouldn’t be the one doing the surgery itself. That part was left up to me since Shoshanne would need to time her moves very carefully to revive Dragir before it was too late.
Deya let out an anxious little squeak when Dragir shifted to check the hold of the chains, and then she abruptly turned to disappear down the dim hallway.
Then Cayla quickly trotted after her to calm her down, and Aurora let out a long steadying breath.
Then the half-elf and I exchanged a glance as I pulled the newly sharpened dagger from my sheath.
“You ready?” I asked Aurora.
“Nope,” she said with a curt nod.
“Great,” I snorted. “At least you’re as calm as I am.”
Dragir’s constant muttering was the only sound in the chamber aside from Shoshanne’s light tapping at the end of her syringe, but my heart was pounding heavily in my ears.
“You’re sure that’s not too much?” I clarified nervously as I eyed the two mL of serum the healer was about to inject into Deya’s brother.
“Hopefully,” Shoshanne answered with an uneasy glance. “I’m used to administering this to animals, not runes.”
“It would be so much better if we knew this was going to work before we did it,” Aurora groaned.
Dragir let out a tense breath. “I would greatly appreciate being unconscious for this discussion.”
“Yeah, but once you’re unconscious, it’s kinda too late for the discussion,” I pointed out. “You’ll be dead as soon as she injects that shit.”
The elf on the table sent me a stern glare rather than respond.
“Cool.” I nodded. “Well, if you don’t care, I don’t care. Shoshanne … do the honors.”
“Wait,” Dragir said abruptly, and we all held our breath when Shoshanne paused with the needle only centimeters from his flesh. Then the elf looked at me with much less irritation. “Don’t … let my sister die. This is important, I instruct you to ensure she lives.”
I furrowed my brow and tried not to immediately change the subject because it only made me more nervous.
“Come on, man,” I mumbled, “I’m not gonna let you die right now. There’s plenty of time to threaten me about your sister later, alright?”
“You are letting me die right now,” Dragir corrected, “but you do not know that I will awaken again. You do not always have a choice with these things. So, if I do not come back, I hold you fully accountable for my sister.”
“You said he doesn’t always have a choice--” Haragh grunted, but a violent jolt from the chained elf silenced him mid sentence.
I sent the half-ogre a pointed look.
“I won’t let her die,” I finally told Dragir, “but you’re not dying either. Not permanently. If you do, all of us will probably be joining you anyways.”
The tension in the room heightened as a heavy silence returned, and Dragir cleared his throat before he sent Shoshanne an apologetic glance.
“Thank you, by the way,” Dragir muttered, and he nodded to the needle. “This is very kind of you.”
Shoshanne nervously smiled back and took a deep breath, and then she inserted the needle into the vein on the elf’s arm to inject the serum.
It genuinely terrified me how many things the healer had in her bag that none of us knew the strength of, but as I watched the neon pink liquid siphon into Dragir’s bloodstream, my pulse kicked up, and I recalled Shoshanne’s concerns from the very start.
She’d said this serum was intended to deliver a painless death to animals who were irretrievable, but in a careful dose, Dragir would still be revivable if every procedure was followed exactly.
Which was less than ideal, but if we could cease the function of the systems in his body completely, then hopefully, the power of the rune pulsing through his veins would be wholly subdued.
Now that the syringe was empty, though, I could tell we were all second guessing the plan more than ever.
“What if you can’t bring him back?” Aurora blurted out for the tenth time that day.
Shoshanne grimaced and placed her hand just beneath Dragir’s jawline to track his pulse.
“I told you,” the healer sighed, “I will do everything I am capable of doing to revive him.”
“Fair enough,” I agreed. “How long before it reaches--”
Dragir’s breath suddenly hitched, and as we all froze, I saw his chest deflate and fall still.
&nbs
p; “Go,” Shoshanne ordered.
I immediately stepped forward and stooped over the rune on the leg of the lifeless elf, and as I inserted the glinting blade into his flesh to begin carving around the symbol, he actually jolted again.
I froze.
“What was that?”
Shoshanne checked his pulse again and furrowed her brow.
“He’s completely gone,” she assured me. “Hurry.”
I nodded and continued my slicing, but when Dragir’s legs began to tremble, I hesitated again.
“What the fuck,” I groaned. “Is it attacking him already?”
“I have no idea!” Shoshanne replied as she looked down in horror. “Do you think I have done this before? His heart has stopped, he’s not breathing, that’s all I can do.”
“Godsdamnit,” I growled, and I quickly began cutting away the flesh as fast as I could.
The intricacies of the lines Dragir had branded into his leg sprawled in non-uniform directions, which made it difficult to cut around. I didn’t want to tear his entire shin open, though, so I tried to make sure I didn’t skip a single line as I carefully twisted the blade along the left edge of the rune.
Heat began welling up under Dragir’s skin, and Aurora wrung her hands nervously beside me as she stood ready to act in a flash if needed.
Haragh had dropped his attitude the moment Dragir stopped breathing, and I could feel his eyes boring into me while I smeared away the blood to try and get a clearer view of what I was doing.
Then Dragir’s entire body suddenly convulsed, and I was glad the chains were holding him in place, or I would have gotten a bloody foot to the head. The blood oozing around the blade’s tip was warmer than it should have been, and sweat began to pour down my temples as the chains rattled with the shaking of Dragir’s limbs.
I hissed against the heat and tried to keep a firm hold on the elf, but my hands were beginning to blister from the temperature of his blood.
“It’s attacking him,” I told Shoshanne as I tried to cut faster.
“Shit,” Shoshanne whimpered, and she lunged for her healer’s bag.
Several vials clanged to the ground while she desperately dug through her sack with trembling hands, and she fought to refill the syringe with pink serum despite the fact she couldn’t steady her nerves anymore.
“Give it here,” Haragh growled, and he stepped forward to snatch the syringe and fill it for her. Then he bypassed the healer completely to drive the needle straight into Dragir’s leg.
The elf lurched violently as another dose of neon pink serum was injected just below the rune, and Aurora jumped nearly a foot into the air.
“Mason … ” she warned shakily.
“I know,” I growled as my fingers blistered another degree, and steam began to rise from the wound I was inflicting.
“Let me,” the half-elf insisted, and she stepped forward.
I nodded and quickly pulled the blade away, and the Ignis Mage sent a thin stream of searing hot flames directly at the runed flesh of the elf.
Now Dragir’s jaw unhinged, and almost at the same moment, my bloody hands began to burn like I’d stuck them straight into a fire.
Aurora shrieked and ceased her flames when she realized it wasn’t working, and I quickly took her place to swipe away the blood and get a better look.
The seared flesh bubbled up and peeled where the Ignis Mage’s flames had tried to scald it away, but I could still see the stubborn branding despite this.
I managed to cut another jagged line while I tried to clamp Dragir’s leg in place, but as his blood coursed over my hands, my eyes began to burn as well.
“Fuck,” I cursed and grabbed for my eyes out of instinct, but then I remembered the way House Kylen’s soldiers had torn their own flesh from their faces against the power of Dragir’s rune.
I forced my hands back to work despite the burning sensation spreading through my skull, and my eyelids shut against the pain.
“We have to stop this,” Shoshanne insisted.
“Working on it,” I managed through gritted teeth, and I blindly felt around Dragir’s leg for the torn edges of his flesh.
“Mason, the rune’s turned on you,” Aurora hissed as she grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “You have to get out of--”
Aurora’s breath caught in her throat, and her hold on my arm released immediately. Her pained gasp made my chest tighten, and I could tell the rune had connected to her through me when she grabbed my arm.
There was no walking away from this one. I needed to finish the rune off before it took us all down.
This time, when my fingers found the scalding blood of the elf, I struck out with the blade before anyone could stop me, and Haragh snarled furiously from the corner.
He slammed into the stone table as he rushed to my side, and then the half-ogre began barking orders.
“Another inch to the right, and then down,” he growled, and I followed his instructions as best I could.
In my mind, there was a perfect image of Dragir’s rune I was trying to follow, but the pain was blotting it out and making the image turn over on its end. Every time I thought I had it, another wave of heat washed through my veins to derail my focus, and I knew the rune was furiously trying to save itself.
My throat felt like I’d swallowed a flaming blade, but I continued hacking at Dragir’s calf, and I abandoned the image of the rune in my mind to focus on the memory of Deya’s sweet smile instead.
Knowing she was relying on all of us to save her brother made it easier to ignore the pain, and the idea of being able to heal in an instant once this was all over was more than inspiring.
If Dragir lived, he’d brand my own runes for me, and with the ability to heal at an accelerated rate, crazy shit like this would be a walk in the park.
Time seemed to slow down while the blade slipped in my bloody grip, and I could feel Shoshanne steadily filling my lungs to help me along, but I knew this wouldn’t be enough against the rune.
The only way out of this was through it.
Haragh kept barking orders to keep my aim on track, and I knew we had to be nearly finished because the heat was increasing rapidly.
But then my gut bloomed with what felt like pure flames, and I groaned as I curled forward.
“Close enough,” Haragh growled, and he grabbed a hold of my hand and the dagger to wrench the rest of the flesh away.
I could feel the sinews splaying apart and resisting the pull of the blade, but as heat took over my mind, I dropped into blackness.
When I came to again, Cayla’s bright blue eyes were blinking down at me, and tears were streaming down her porcelain cheeks.
“Hey beautiful,” I mumbled through cracked lips.
Cayla let out a terrified breath and buried my face against her chest, and her supple skin smelled like honey and fresh leather.
I would have smiled if I had the strength to, but my body was completely limp and felt like a used rag someone slapped against a wall several times.
There were a million ways to die, but being boiled alive had never been on my list. After experiencing a taste of it, I was more than willing to lay there and thank every god in the cosmos for giving me Cayla’s cleavage instead.
So, I just let the princess take deep breaths to calm herself while she clutched my face against her ample breasts, and I heard the distant conversation of the others in the chamber around us.
“Is he breathing?” Haragh asked.
When Shoshanne didn’t respond, my pulse quickened, and I began to come around from my haze faster.
I furrowed my brow and strained to sit up, and Cayla gave an irritated huff as she reluctantly released me. I could feel her nervous hands running all over my arms, and I forced my eyes open to see Aurora propped against the wall beside me with her head in her palms.
My hand shot to the half-elf’s leg in a flash, and when she abruptly looked up, I almost collapsed all over again just from relief.
“You�
�re okay,” I sighed.
“I’m okay,” Aurora said softly, but her emerald eyes flicked to the table next.
I lurched to my feet and caught my weight on the edge of the stone table before I could topple over, and as I looked down on the lifeless elf, my adrenaline surged.
“Wake him up,” I ordered.
“I’m trying to,” Shoshanne said, and I could hear from her tone that she was choking back her tears. “There’s too much serum in his system, I--I--”
I reached out and placed a steadying hold on the healer’s trembling hand.
“You can do this,” I assured her. “Just focus on your element. Forget everything else. You still have time.”
Shoshanne gave a scared little nod and placed her palms back on Dragir’s chest, and we all stayed perfectly still while she continued to force the elf’s lungs to breathe for him.
When nearly a minute had gone by, I glanced at her bag.
“Isn’t there anything you can give him to counter the serum?” I asked.
The healer jumped up and pulled her bag over, and while she swiped her eyes and dug desperately through her stock, I began performing CPR.
More vials clanged to the floor, and Shoshanne began cursing under her breath.
Dragir’s heart still hadn’t started to beat again, and his face was a deathly gray.
“The Tiorlin berries,” I tried as I forced my palms down on the elf’s chest and began counting in my head. “Something with a kick, or a shock, fucking adrenaline, anything!”
“I don’t have anything like that,” Shoshanne choked out. “These things don’t work on dead bodies, I don’t know what to do.”
“Here,” I ordered. “Keep doing CPR.”
Shoshanne swiftly took my place, and I squinted up at the ceiling.
My eyelids felt swollen after the rune had turned on me, but I could make out the copper wiring alright. After a moment, I finally found a small etching of a rune on a slender plate of metal, and I summoned my magic to tear it off the wall and bring it to my hand.
Then I brushed Shoshanne aside and pulled a strand of copper down as well to connect a piece on both ends of the plate. Now, there were two wires twisting in opposite directions with the rune that powered Dragir’s electricity in the center, and I gritted my teeth as I placed both ends of the wiring on the elf’s chest.
